Jeri Brown - Image In The Mirror

Jazz still has some risk-taking singers like Jeri Brown, who doesn't spend all of her time providing predictable, knee-jerk versions of overdone warhorses. There isn't a warhorse to be found on The Image in the Mirror: The Triptych; everything on this CD was written or co-written by pianist Milton Sealey. Brown (who is joined by Sealey on piano, Avery Sharpe on bass, and Grady Tate on drums) has never been a clone artist -- even her interpretations of standards have sounded personal. And on this album, she uses Sealey's attractive post-bop melodies to make personal statements. This is a highly introspective CD, although it's also quite accessible -- for Brown, introspective doesn't mean going out of her way to be abstract. Those who complain about all the Vaughan and Fitzgerald clones who are so unadventurous and predictable in their choices of material owe it to themselves to give The Image in the Mirror: The Triptych a close listen. ~ Alex Henderson

Personnel: Jeri Brown (vocals); Milt Sealey (piano); Avery Sharpe (bass); Grady Tate (drums).